After giving the game a break for a couple of days (I didn't miss it) I thought I'd come back and try again.

My current thoughts (not shared by everyone I know, there are people who will like the game no matter what!).

PvP

I'm still a little confused over this - some very strange things happen and I'm not sure if I can explain them.
I fly a Tactical Escort and was going against a Klingon ship and was hammering it for at least a minute, I managed to get it's hull down to 90% (it was back at full shields nearly) when I died. I understand about Science Team, Rotate Shields etc but thought what's supposed to be the Federation's major damage dealer might have more of an effect.

Another fight saw me firing on a ship, then it disappeared (I'm assuming cloaked), meanwhile I was being hammered from seemingly nowhere, took my shields down, and hull down to 47%, then the supposedly "cloaked" ship appeared right next to me - was this a graphics glitch?

Federation seem to suck badly at PvP, could we not have auto-teaming on entry if you're not on a team? Standard Fed tactics seem to be to run into a Klingon ball (usually 5 ships or so), die quickly, rinse and repeat - I find myself flying around waiting for a Fed ship that's not doing that and hoping they'll team (and of course wait). Perhaps having Fed and Klingon only channels might help, or being able to see where all your allies are on a map.

Also, I hope there are plans to introduce balancing on PvP maps? I started a map today, with me being the only one in then, followed by 3 Klingon ships coming in about 2 mins later and the map ended up being 3v5 I think - once sides are balanced, then perhaps start balancing levels?

PvE

To be honest this is ok, I know there's lots of rinse and repeat, but sometimes it can be ok. I think a bit more variety is needed though because after doing 3 or 4 missions I find myself getting somewhat bored.

I think the Fleet Actions are pretty decent though, however I think it might be wise to limit these like PvP to certain levels to give some of the lower levels a chance to get decent equipment.

Equipment is another thing of interest, there seems to be one of two ways to go, either the Blizzard (read Diablo) way of many many combinations of stats changing (in STO that would be dps, crits etc) as well as having some almost "unique" weapons (rather than Phaser Mk I, Mk II etc having something like Enterprise C Phaser bank - I know that's a crap description but you may know what I mean!). The other way is something like Guild Wars where everyone ends up with the same weapons in the end, it's just the way you use them that counts - I think this is the way that STO has gone, however I don't think it's implemented as well.

Documentation

Are we going to get more in game as to what all the stats do/effect? I know there are websites now with alot of the info, but I don't want to have to alt-tab out just to read it!

Exchange

Can this please be searchable properly? I want to be able to search for Dual Phaser, Phaser Dual, Phaser Cannons, mk iv phaser and so on, not have to search in order!

I know there's the 45 day patch coming up, but I'd be interested to hear what's planned for now and what's planned for the future. I do hope it's not going to be 11Gb though (that's greater than my download limit for a month so effectively costs me £10 just for a game update!) as I may not want to download it and might miss out on something good

I'm one of the people who hasn't renewed their subscription, but I'm still hoping things may get better (I know people have said maybe come back in a few months, but I think the appeal may have gone by then and I might have moved onto other things). I hope for Cryptic's sake things do get better, this is a livelihood for some of those guys after all. I just hope that some more mid level content comes in as I'm never going to power level or hit RA5 quickly, therefore I feel I might be missing out on the end game content just because I can't play the game as often.

Anyway, enough from me - please don't flame these are genuine thoughts on a game that still has promise.

Unfortunalty your going to get bashed by the Forum Pet Gang and their cronies so dont expect it to stay around for long

Well, to be honest if that happens so be it. I know Cryptic have taken alot of crap, but there have been alot of good points made too - I think some of my points may just be me not understanding the game properly, or they may be a balance issue. The one thing I've noticed though is that I've never taken this long to understand how a game works, but I think this is a documentation issue.

Are we going to get more in game as to what all the stats do/effect? I know there are websites now with alot of the info, but I don't want to have to alt-tab out just to read it!

You can right click on equipment and select info and it will tell you what all it effects. I had the same complaint with the documentation as you until someone pointed that out to me, made it MUCH easier to set up my ship. Hope that helps!

You can right click on equipment and select info and it will tell you what all it effects. I had the same complaint with the documentation as you until someone pointed that out to me, made it MUCH easier to set up my ship. Hope that helps!

Yeah, I realised that, but thanks anyways I think the issue is there are some bits that aren't as clear, then others where you have to follow a chain of "info" before you get to the final answer.

I'm still a little confused over this - some very strange things happen and I'm not sure if I can explain them.
I fly a Tactical Escort and was going against a Klingon ship and was hammering it for at least a minute, I managed to get it's hull down to 90% (it was back at full shields nearly) when I died. I understand about Science Team, Rotate Shields etc but thought what's supposed to be the Federation's major damage dealer might have more of an effect.

Another fight saw me firing on a ship, then it disappeared (I'm assuming cloaked), meanwhile I was being hammered from seemingly nowhere, took my shields down, and hull down to 47%, then the supposedly "cloaked" ship appeared right next to me - was this a graphics glitch?

Federation seem to suck badly at PvP, could we not have auto-teaming on entry if you're not on a team? Standard Fed tactics seem to be to run into a Klingon ball (usually 5 ships or so), die quickly, rinse and repeat - I find myself flying around waiting for a Fed ship that's not doing that and hoping they'll team (and of course wait). Perhaps having Fed and Klingon only channels might help, or being able to see where all your allies are on a map.

Regarding PvP, it's the player, not the game most of the time. You're talking about the feds sucking at PvP, I've faced off with some good fed players. They're the ones that usually get the value of having wingmen. You have to understand, most fed players only dabble in pvp as they have a pve game, whereas klingon side it tends to catch on more quickly as pvp's all we have.

[quote=Snarf999]After giving the game a break for a couple of days (I didn't miss it) I thought I'd come back and try again.

My current thoughts (not shared by everyone I know, there are people who will like the game no matter what!).

PvP

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snarf999

I'm still a little confused over this - some very strange things happen and I'm not sure if I can explain them.
I fly a Tactical Escort and was going against a Klingon ship and was hammering it for at least a minute, I managed to get it's hull down to 90% (it was back at full shields nearly) when I died. I understand about Science Team, Rotate Shields etc but thought what's supposed to be the Federation's major damage dealer might have more of an effect.

This happens to the Klingons as well. Ya just switch targets and come back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snarf999

Another fight saw me firing on a ship, then it disappeared (I'm assuming cloaked), meanwhile I was being hammered from seemingly nowhere, took my shields down, and hull down to 47%, then the supposedly "cloaked" ship appeared right next to me - was this a graphics glitch?

He didnt cloak he used Mask energy signal. Both sides can use it so you can have it to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snarf999

Federation seem to suck badly at PvP, could we not have auto-teaming on entry if you're not on a team? Standard Fed tactics seem to be to run into a Klingon ball (usually 5 ships or so), die quickly, rinse and repeat - I find myself flying around waiting for a Fed ship that's not doing that and hoping they'll team (and of course wait). Perhaps having Fed and Klingon only channels might help, or being able to see where all your allies are on a map.

Also, I hope there are plans to introduce balancing on PvP maps? I started a map today, with me being the only one in then, followed by 3 Klingon ships coming in about 2 mins later and the map ended up being 3v5 I think - once sides are balanced, then perhaps start balancing levels?

These have been popular requests, Im not sure why they wont implement it.